Last Witnesses : An Oral History of the Children of World War II

Translation copyright © 2019 by Penguin Random House LLC

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

RANDOM HOUSE and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Originally published in Russian as Последние свидетели: сто недетских колыбельных by Molodaya Gvardiya, Moscow, in 1985. Copyright © 1985 by Svetlana Alexievich

This English translation is published in the United Kingdom by Penguin, London.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Aleksievich, Svetlana, author. | Pevear, Richard, translator. | Volokhonsky, Larissa, translator.

Title: Last witnesses: an oral history of the children of World War II / Svetlana Alexievich; translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

Other titles: Poslednie svideteli. English

Description: First edition. | New York: Random House, [2019]

Identifiers: LCCN 2018034984 | ISBN 9780399588754 | ISBN 9780399588778 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1939–1945—Children—Soviet Union. | World War, 1939–1945—Personal narratives, Soviet.

Classification: LCC D810.C4 A44313 2019 | DDC 940.53/4709253—dc23

LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/​2018034984

Ebook ISBN 9780399588778

randomhousebooks.com

Book design by Barbara M. Bachman, adapted for ebook

Cover design: Anna Bauer Carr

Cover photograph: akg-images/picture alliance/ZB

v5.4

ep

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Instead of a Preface

“He Was Afraid to Look Back…”

“My First and Last Cigarette…”

“Grandma Prayed…She Asked That My Soul Come Back…”

“They Lay Pink on the Cinders…”

“I Still Want My Mama…”

“Such Pretty German Toys…”

“A Handful of Salt…All That Was Left of Our House…”

“And I Kissed All the Portraits in My Schoolbook…”

“I Gathered Them with My Hands…They Were Very White…”

“I Want to Live! I Want to Live!…”

“Through a Buttonhole…”

“All I Heard Was Mama’s Cry…”

“We Played, and the Soldiers Wept…”

“In the Cemetery the Dead Lay Above Ground…as If They’d Been Killed Again…”

“I Realized—This Was My Father…My Knees Trembled…”

“Close Your Eyes, Sonny…Don’t Look…”

“My Little Brother Cries, Because He Wasn’t There When Papa Was There…”

“That Girl Was the First to Come…”

“I’m Your Mama…”

“We Ask: Can We Lick It?…”

“…An Extra Half-Spoon of Sugar”

“Dear House, Don’t Burn Dear House, Don’t Burn!…”

“She Came in a White Smock, Like Mama…”

“Auntie, Take Me on Your Knees…”

“…And Began to Rock Her Like a Doll”

“They Had Already Bought Me a Primer…”

“…Neither Suitors nor Soldiers…”

“If Only One Son Could Be Left…”

“He Wiped His Tears with His Sleeve…”

“He Hung on the String Like a Baby…”

“You’ll Be My Children Now…”

“We Kissed Their Hands…”

“I Looked at Them with a Little Girl’s Eyes…”

“Our Mama Didn’t Smile…”

“I Couldn’t Get Used to My Name…”

“His Army Shirt Was Wet…”

“As If She Had Saved His Own Daughter…”

“They Carried Me to the Unit in Their Arms…I Was All One Bruise from Head to Foot…”

“And Why Am I So Small?…”

“They Were Drawn by the Human Scent…”

“Why Did They Shoot Her in the Face? My Mama Was So Beautiful…”

“You Asked Me to Finish You Off…”

“And I Didn’t Even Have a Scarf On…”

“No One to Play Outside With…”

“I’ll Open the Window at Night…and Give the Pages to the Wind…”

“Dig Here…”

“Grandpa Was Buried Under the Window…”

“…And They Tamped It Down with the Shovels, So It Looked Pretty.”

“I’ll Buy Myself a Dress with a Little Bow…”

“How Did He Die, If There Was No Shooting Today?…”

“Because We’re Girls, and He’s a Boy…”

“You’re No Brother of Mine If You Play with German Boys…”

“We Even Forgot That Word…”

“You Should Go to the Front, but You Fall in Love with My Mama…”

“In the Last Moments They Shouted Their Names…”

“All Four of Us Pulled That Sledge…”

“These Two Boys Became Light as Sparrows…”

“I Was Embarrassed to Be Wearing Girls’ Shoes…”

“I Screamed and Screamed…I Couldn’t Stop…”

“We All Joined Hands…”

“We Didn’t Even Know How to Bury…but Now We Somehow Recalled It…”

“He Gathered Them in a Basket…”

“They Took the Kittens Out of the Cottage…”

“Remember: 6 Park Street, Mariupol…”

“I Heard His Heart Stop…”

“I Ran Away to the Front Following My Sister, First Sergeant Vera Redkina…”

“In the Direction of the Sunrise…”

“A White Shirt Shines Far Off in the Dark…”

“On the Clean Floor That I Had Just Washed…”

“Did God Watch This? and What Did He Think?…”

“The Wide World Is Wondrous…”

“They Brought Long, Thin Candy…It Looked Like Pencils…”

“The Little Trunk Was Just His Size…”

“I Was Afraid of That Dream…”

“I Wanted to Be Mama’s Only Child…So She Could Pamper Me…”

“But, Like Rubber Balls, They Didn’t Sink…”

“I Remember the Blue, Blue Sky…and Our Planes in That Sky…”

“Like Ripe Pumpkins…”

“We Ate…the Park…”

“Whoever Cries Will Be Shot…”

“Dear Mama and Dear Papa— Golden Words…”

“They Brought Her Back in Pieces…”

“The Chicks Had Just Hatched…I Was Afraid They’d Be Killed…”

“King of Clubs…King of Diamonds…”

“A Big Family Photograph…”

“At Least Let Me Pour Some Little Potatoes in Your Pockets…”